


Finding Family

by MrDragon



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Death, Description of a character dying, F/M, M/M, Nothing too gory tho, Sad feelings, Violence, domestic abuse, poor ocs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 15:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13638927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrDragon/pseuds/MrDragon
Summary: Alicai has been separated from his family due to being away at school when the apocalypse strikes. After he makes his way back down towards where he used to live and discovers that all is not well, how will he handle adjusting to living in a group full of strangers as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse?





	1. Chapter 1

I snapped back to reality, staring out of the window of the tall office building at the undead city of Atlanta. I frown, wondering what caused me to come back to reality when I hear the sharp clicking of what sounds like...hooves? I cover my mouth and nose with a black bandana, creeping out of the room and quickly arriving on the roof of the building. I cautiously step out onto the thick power lines that connect the tall buildings, looking below me and seeing a man in a sheriff’s uniform riding a horse. I nearly slap a hand to my forehead. ‘How dumb can this guy be?’ Rolling my red eyes and sighing, I run across the line to a neighboring building and climb down the fire escape into an abandoned alleyway and peek out, seeing the man climbing into a tank to escape a hoard of walkers. I pull out my walkie-talkie and connect it to the radio in the tank, noticing an asian man in an alleyway slightly ahead of mine, also talking into a walkie talkie, probably to the man inside. 

“How much of a dumbass are you, cowboy?” I hiss into the radio, seeing the asian man jump and look around wildly. I sigh and shake my head. “I’m in the alleyway across from you, ballcap.” He looks up at me and I raise a pierced eyebrow at him.

“How long have you been there?” He says with wide eyes, and I hear the man in the tank gasp at my voice over the radio. 

“Just a few minutes. Anyways, I can clear a way for you, if you’ll give me about..say, 2 minutes?” I say, looking towards where the tank would be. 

“How’re you gonna get rid of that many geeks that fast?” the asian man asked incredulously. 

“Watch me.” At this I put away my radio and climb up the side of the building, and run across the top, jumping and barely making it to the neighboring rooftop. I grab a metal garbage can and drp it into the alleyway, resulting into a giant crash that I’m sure could be heard from anywhere in the next few miles. Then, I run back to the roof I was on and run back into the alley I was in before sprinting out to the tank, which was now all on its own as the walkers went to investigate the crash. I lean down and knock on the top of the tank three times, yelling at him to get out here. A few seconds later the hatch of the tank opens and out comes the sheriff. 

“Come on, we gotta go,” I say and pull him behind me, to the alley the asian man is hiding in. He looks at me incredulously, and nods at us before starting to run and I follow him, pulling the cowboy behind me until we reach an alley with a metal door, that I presume we are going to go through. I kill the two walkers in the alley as the asian dude - I really need to find out his name - knocks on the door in a specific pattern, before it bursts open and we run inside. 

A blonde woman and a bald man are staring at us as the cowboy and ball capped man catch their breath, and I pull out a rag from my back pocket and wipe the gore off of my blade, ignoring their suspicious looks. Once my blade is sufficiently clean, I sheathe it and sigh before pulling down my cowl and brushing a hand through my hair. I look around at the others before stretching my arms above my head and yawning. 

I glance over at the sheriff, who has both eyebrows raised, and raise my eyebrow at him. “Yes?”

“Rick Grimes,” Is all he says as he sticks his hand out for a handshake. I smirk and grab his hand. 

“Alicai Nox,” I say, addressing all of them. They introduce themselves as T-Dog, Andrea, and Glenn. Then I turn to Rick. “What the hell were you thinking riding a horse into an undead hot spot?” I ask irritatedly. He frowns and takes a small step back. 

“I’m looking for my wife and son, I thought they might be here. I thought there was a shelter here,” he mutters defensively, tense and on edge. 

“The shelter is nothing but a pipe dream, Rick.” He frowns and then shrugs it off, though he still looks thoughtful. 

“What’s with the piercings and fangs?” This comes from Glenn. I raise an eyebrow at him and answer calmly, though my heart aches slightly at the memory. 

“The piercings were a kind of tradition between my sister and I. Every time I came to visit, I would get a new piercing. She only had three though. I’m looking for my family too. My parents, sisters and brothers. The fangs I got because I wanted to. And they’re useful sometimes,” I say, clearing my throat to try to get rid of the ache in my chest. They simply nod and start up a set of stairs. I follow them to a door that comes out into a clothing store. There are walkers pounding against the glass doors. One of them got ahold of a chunk of concrete, and was hitting it against the glass. Suddenly, a loud gunshot echoes from above us. I freeze, and watch as the others run back through the door and up another set of stairs. I follow and we come out onto the roof where a man with a sniper rifle is shooting at the walkers in the street. 

Glenn and T-Dog yell at him to stop and he turns around and starts to beat on T-Dog. The others try to stop him, though nothing works until Rick finally pulls him off. They chain him to a metal pipe with a pair of handcuffs that I assume came from Rick. I walk over and stand off to the side a little with my arms crossed over my chest, looking over the man they are referring to as ‘Merle’. He notices me and apparently has a problem with how I look. 

“What’s with the get up, pretty boy?”


	2. Chapter 2

I only look at him, unimpressed. I’m wearing black cargo pants tucked into black knee high combat boots with a black v neck t shirt and my black cowl. I also have a pair of fingerless black leather gloves and knives strapped all over my person. 

“Aw, you think I’m pretty?” I say, flashing my fangs at him as I approach him slowly, like a predator approaching its prey. I pull a knife out of my boot and toss it up into the air before catching it and repeating. “You might not think that if I showed you just what I can do.” I say, catching the knife one more time before spinning it in my fingers as I walk slowly closer. When I get close enough, I flick my arm out and leave a little cut on his chin. Not deep, but enough for it to leave a mark and remind him to shut up sometimes. I sigh in irritation and sheath it before turning to the others who were looking at me suspiciously. 

“Sorry ‘bout that. I get irritated easily.” I walk over to the edge of the building and climb up to stand on the small ledge, looking out over the city and taking deep, calming breaths. I hear the others discussion on what to do about the herd that is trying to break in, and hear Glenn mention what I did to distract the herd of walkers surrounding the tank. They all turn to me and I look over my shoulder at them questioningly. 

“Do you think you could do what you did earlier to get Rick out of the tank?” Glenn asks me and I think for a moment before nodding and turning to start walking on the edge, doing small spins and turns out of boredom. 

“That won’t work as well to escape the city. Do you have get away cars?” They shake their heads. “Someone should go get a truck so that we can transport all of the supplies you’ve gathered, while someone else gets something small and fast to distract the walkers with so that they don’t go after the truck. That way, the one with the truck can come get the others and supplies while the one in the little car can help me.” They look surprised. Apparently they didn’t think of that. They get into a small huddle and I ignore them, doing a handstand on the slim ledge. One of them notices and gasps, drawing the attention of the others and I quickly flip off of the ledge before one of them makes me fall. Rick and Glenn leave soon after to get the cars and I wait on the top of the building while the others go down to get the supplies together and wait by the large back doors for Rick to come by and pick them up. I pull my bandana back up and wait for the signal. I make sure to lock the door so that no walkers will be able to get to Merle and perch on the edge again. He’s an annoying bastard, but I wouldn’t wish that fate on my worst enemies. 

When I hear the loud blaring of a car alarm I climb down the building by way of fire escape and begin killing the walkers by stabbing them in the brain. When the large van goes by me I jump onto the back, grabbing the handle, and killing the walkers that get too close. When we get far enough from the city, Rick stops the box truck and lets me get in. I sit and clean my blades until we get into the mountains, following the small red mustang that Glenn used to distract the walkers. 

“Who’s all in your guy’s group?” I ask Andrea and T-Dog who’re sitting in the back with all of the supplies they gathered. 

“There’s a couple families, just people who needed to band together to save their families.” Andrea replies. I nod and sit silently, thinking about my youngest sister. She would have turned 7 today. I have a small charm that she gave me around my neck on a silver chain. It’s a tiny silver microphone. I finger the ring in my eyebrow. All of my piercings are black so that they stand out, but the one in my eyebrow was a gift from my older sister. it’s black with a small white stripe running down the middle. 

“What were your siblings like?” I hear Andrea ask me quietly. I smile and chuckle a little bit. 

“I had two brothers and two sisters. My brothers were both older than me and they were accountants. They liked to joke around and we would wrestle when we were little. My older sister was always so sweet, but we had our fights. We were super close, we did most things together. My younger sister was close to me too. She liked to play with my piercings and was fascinated with my teeth. She would be turning four today..” I trail off with a sad smile. “I went to school in New York, studying music, so I wasn’t home when the world went to hell. I traveled from NY to here, just to find my family.” By then we were approaching the camp, and I saw people walking around and then when we pulled up, they all stopped what they were doing and approached the vans. I got out and walked around to the front of the van, getting suspicious looks from everyone. I even saw a woman with short gray hair pull her daughter back when she took in my appearance. Rick was standing next to me, also looking around the camp when he froze and tensed. I looked where he was looking and saw a thin woman with long brown hair standing next to a young boy with short brown hair and blue eyes. He started to run towards them shouting ‘Lori’ and ‘Carl’. I assumed this was his family and I felt happy for him, but also envious because I ached to see my brothers and sisters and parents, just to know that they were safe. I was lost in thought until I heard someone say my name. I looked up to see Glen standing in front of me with a older man in a hawaiian print shirt. I stood up straight and held out my hand. The man introduced himself as Dale. I introduced myself too and looked around camp again. 

All of a sudden I saw a small girl run out from behind a tent with a lithe woman chasing after her playfully and I felt like the wind was knocked out of me. 

“Bambi?” The woman frowned and looked at me before her eyes widened and she started walking towards me, picking up speed as she got closer. “BAMBI!” I shouted and sprinted to her and picked her up, spinning her around. I crushed her to my chest, tears flowing down my cheeks as she wrapped her arms around me and sobbed into my chest. “Bambi...Oh, Bambi, you’re safe..Thank God…” I whispered and let the tears stream down my cheeks. We just stood there for a while before I felt something pulling on my pant leg and I pulled back. I looked down to see my youngest sister, and I let go of Bambi and squatted down, cupping her face in my hands. 

“Kai?” she asked with a puzzled frown on her face. I laughed and gave her a watery smile and I nodded. “Why are you sad?” She asked me, looking as if this was the mystery of the year. 

“I’m not sad, Mi. I’m just so happy to have found you again.” I say and pull her to my chest. I sit there for a while until she pulls back a little bit, and puts her hands on my cheeks, pressing down, leaning up to land a wet kiss on my nose. I laugh and pull her back into a hug. Hearing footsteps approaching us, I pick her up and wrap an arm around Bambi’s shoulders, pulling her to my side and she wraps an arm around my waist. 

“Are these your sisters, Alicai?” It’s Andrea. I nod. She smiles and points out over the large lake that is just a little ways away. “In that case, your brothers are here too. They are down on the lake fishing,” she says and turns to the blonde woman next to her who I assume is her sister. I look at Bambi and she nods, a wide smile on her lips. I start running down to the lake, too excited to walk. When I get to the shore, I see a small boat out on the water with two figure seated in it. 

“Brent! Bo!” I shout and they look over, before one of them, probably Bo, stands and shouts at me. 

“Alicai?!?”

“Yeah!”   
The figure sits down before they grab the oars and start to row frantically and as soon as they get to a point that they can stand in the water easily, they jump out of the boat and pull it to shore as quickly as they can. As soon as the boat is on land they let go and sprint towards me, tackling me to the sand. I laugh and hug them tightly. I’m overjoyed to see them and I let them get up before hopping up and hugging them again. We sat on the beach and just talked a little before I finally realized something. 

“Where’s mom and dad?” I ask quietly, a pensive frown on my face. They suddenly grew quiet. “Guys?” I ask, now worried, “What? What happened?”

Brent, the oldest, cleared his throat before saying in a tight voice, “Mom and dad didn’t make it. They were at the house when they found out and Dad got so scared that he killed mom before shooting himself in the head.”

The cold hand of grief gripped my heart and tears once again filled my eyes before spilling over and slipping down my cheeks. I sat there in shock for a few moments before sobs wracked my form and I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, burying my head into my knees. I felt the warm arms of my brothers wrap around me. I snuggled into their arms and soaked in the warmth, even though it was boiling hot outside.

A while later when I calmed down a little bit, I walked back to camp and left my brothers to finish whatever it was they were doing. When I got there I went over to Dale who was talking to Glenn. 

“Sorry, I took off earlier. I’ve been looking for my family since this whole thing started,” I state apologetically. He just nods and smiles at me and excuses Glenn. 

“That’s perfectly fine, I understand. Is there anything in particular that you’re good at?” he asks with one eyebrow raised. I nod and take out one of my knives. 

“I’m good with knives and fighting, hunting, childcare, and cooking?” I suggest. He nods and is quiet for a second as he thinks something over. 

“How good with knives?” He asks eyeing the sheathes that are visible. I look around for a second before seeing a tree not too far away and point it out to Dale who nods. I launch the knife at it, and it buries itself deep into the bark. I jog over to it and yank it out, sheathing it and jogging back. He stares at me with wide eyes. “Fighting?”

“I’ve been fighting since I was 5, sneaking since I could walk, hunting for a good 10 years, and cooking since I was about 14. I’ve had to take care of my younger sister more times than I could count. I also do gymnastics and took my team to state where we won.” 

“What aren’t you good at, Alicai?” He asks incredulously. I stop and think for a moment. 

“I’m not very good at keeping my temper in check or sympathizing with people,” I say quietly, remembering the events that took place on the rooftop in Atlanta with Merle. 

“Well, as long as you don’t cause any injuries, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. You can demonstrate your cooking skills tonight for dinner, if you’d like,” He suggests. I nod in agreement and walk off to find my sisters.


	3. Chapter 3

I find them with Rick’s wife and the woman who warned her daughter away from me. They are watching the kids play and talking. They stop as soon as I get near. I ignore it and look around the clearing for a chunk of wood. I find a good one and sit down next to my sister and begin to carve the wood with my smallest knife. They watch me for a while before returning to their conversation, though they cast nervous glances my way occasionally. ‘I guess being a new unknown guy who can use knives makes me a bad guy.’ I begin humming Gone Without Goodbye by Brian Littrell, one of my favorite songs. Most people wouldn’t think that I’d be into that style of music because of my appearance, but I guess I’m just weird. When I get halfway through the song, I’m so absorbed in my carving that I don’t notice when I start to sing the words out loud. 

“For I can feel the pain, look into his eyes, but I don’t know gone without goodbye.” I sing softly and I notice that they stop talking, but I ignore it in favor of focusing on my project. “If I could reach the sky, I’d bring her right back to your arms, though I haven’t seen your girl, she’s forever in my life.” I could feel their eyes boring into the top of my head, and I finally looked up, raising an eyebrow. “What?” I say cluelessly, not sure what they wanted. 

“You have a beautiful voice,” This comes from Lori, Rick’s wife. I blushed as I realized that I had been singing out loud. I gave her a small smile.

“Thank you,” I say quietly. I bite my lip and tug on the rings that are there. 

“How long have you been singing?” She asks me, fiddling with the chain of her necklace. I smile as I remember all the times that I would just blast music and belt out the lyrics to songs.

“Since I was little. I’ve always really loved music,” I say, “You’re Rick’s wife, Lori? Right?” I say, sure I have the right name, but wanting to check just in case I was wrong. She nods and I smile. I turn when I hear leaves crunching behind me under little feet. I see Mira running towards me at full speed. When she’s about two feet away, she launches herself at me and squeals. I quickly drop my knife and catch her, throwing her up and catching her again before setting her down in my lap, smiling and kissing her on the forehead. She giggles and reaches up to pull my face down and kiss my forehead too. I laugh and lightly tap her nose. She scrunches her nose up and puts her hands on my lips, pushing them apart to look at my teeth. I sigh and let her, as long as she doesn’t try to put her hands in my mouth, it’s fine. I get an idea and smirk before fake growling at her and baring my fangs playfully as I tickle her. She squeals and shrieks in laughter as I tickle her. I hear laughing that is definitely not coming from Mira and look up to see the other ladies laughing. I smile and let go of Mira, who grabs my hand and tells me to come play with her. I get up and follow her and let her lead me to a patch of yellow dandelions. She runs around picking a bunch of the yellow flowers after telling me to stay there. Then she runs back to me and begins threading the flowers into my hair. I chuckle and let her, sitting still until she declares that she’s finished. Then I get up and head back to the ladies to finish my carving. They laugh at me when they see the flowers in my hair, but I just smile and sit down.

A little bit later, I hear a scream and the ladies and I spring up and run to where the scream came from and see Carl and a younger girl standing away from a walker who’s munching on a deer that has an arrow buried in it’s head. I frown and move forward with a knife in hand to stab it, but before I can, it falls down dead with an arrow in its skull. I look up when I hear the bushes directly in front of me begin to shake and rattle as I figure makes its way through. I get ready to kill something when a skinny, but muscular man walks out of the bushes with a crossbow in his hands. I remain in my defensive position as he walks up to the walker and yanks the arrow out before kicking it and cursing. 

“Stupid walker got to my kill!” he shouts and walks over to the deer and yanking the arrow out. By now the other guys have arrived on the scene, and are gathered around us. 

“Do you think we could just cut around the part it gnawed on?” a man with dark hair and eyes that is standing next to Rick suggests. 

“I wouldn’t risk it,” I say, shaking my head. He looks at me and frowns. I see how his eyes flicker up to my hair and automatically labels me as someone who isn’t a threat. 

“And who are you?” He says haughtily. I roll my eyes and sheath my knife, standing up straight. 

“Alicai Nox. Brent, Bo, Mira, and Bambi’s brother.” I say and hold out a hand that he rudely ignores. 

“Shane.” He says. I can tell that he thinks that I’m not dangerous. I start to get irritated. “Who’s Bambi?” He asks me with a cockily raised eyebrow. I point at my older sister. “You mean Taylor?” I nod and he rolls his eyes. “Why do you call her Bambi?” 

“It’s just a nickname that I gave her when I was little and it stuck.” I say as I shrug my shoulders. I frown and walk up to him, irritated at the way he writes me off as though I couldn’t hurt him. “ I say we don’t try to eat the deer. Did you get any other kind of meat?” I ask the man with the crossbow, assuming he’s the hunter of the group. He nods. 

“Yeah, I got some squirrels. It’s not much to work with, but it should be enough for the group. The name’s Daryl Dixon,” He says and offers his hand, which I shake. “Why do you care how much meat I got?” He asks curiously. 

“Alicai Nox, and I’m in in charge of cooking tonight. I wanted to know what I’ve got to work with so I can cook it right.” He nods and starts walking back to the camp. I follow him, as it’s probably about time to start preparing dinner for the camp. When we get back I walk over to the RV and get a small metal bowl, then go to a small table outside and ask Daryl to help me get the squirrels skinned and ready to be cooked. 

“D’ya know how to skin a squirrel, flower boy?” He says with an eyebrow raised. I frown for a moment at the name before remembering the flowers still threaded into my hair. 

“My knives aren’t just for show,” I say and pull out a smaller one, but not the smallest that I had on me. I grab a squirrel and begin expertly skinning and gutting it. Daryl watches for a moment before skinning a squirrel too. 

Not long after that, we finish preparing the meat and I ask if he would like to help me with the rest. He agrees and we start to chat idly. 

“What’s the story behind your arrival? I’m pretty sure you weren’t here when I left earlier.” He asks. I shrug my shoulders and begin telling the story of how I found my siblings. 

“I was going to school up in New York, and then I heard about the whole world going to shit and traveled from there to here, where I stumbled across a few of yours doing a supply run in the city and I helped them get out. I came back to camp and discovered that my siblings were here and that my parents were dead.” I say, a pang going through my chest again. He’s silent for a little bit before he continues with the questions. 

“How come you look so different? I mean, your sisters both have brown hair and your brothers both have blonde hair, and they all have blue eyes, yet you have white hair and red eyes. Your build is different from theirs too..” He trailed off. I sighed, this was a question that I got a lot. 

“My mom and dad adopted me when they went to Germany on vacation and found me half dead from starvation on the side of the road. They took me to the hospital and adopted me when my guardians were found inadequate. I was 12 then, so I still speak German and sometimes I slip into the language on accident,” I say softly with a small smile at the memory. It was one of the happiest days of my life when they asked me if I wanted them to adopt me. It took awhile for me to trust them and get used to the rest of the family. 

Daryl was quiet for a while, before he began telling his own story of how he and his brother were mistreated by their father and often had too little food. 

Soon dinner was done and I carried a large pot of squirrel stew out to where everyone had gathered to eat. There were two fires for some reason, most of the camp gathered around the larger one, while the woman who had told her daughter to stay away from me and her husband and daughter at the other one. I was sitting by the fire after I had finished eating and received many compliments on my cooking and letting Mira pull the flowers out of my hair and play with my earrings. There was a small commotion at the other fire when the husband, Ed, tried to make the fire bigger and Rick went over to tell him not to. They got in a small scuffle. Glenn was telling everyone how I had distracted a ton of walkers to get Rick out of the tank and people were looking at me in disbelief. Especially Shane. 

“You’re telling me that flower boy over there was smart enough to distract half a herd of walkers all by himself? No way, he’s too delicate for that,” he proclaimed loudly. My brothers and older sister were trying to get him to shut up and I started taking deep breaths to try and calm down. But he just kept going on and on about how there was no possible way that I could do that because I was so small and let my sister put flowers in my hair. Finally, I had enough. I handed Mira to Bambi and stood up, drawing Shane’s attention. I gave him a dark look that had most of the group flinching. I walked over to him slowly, taking measured steps and pulling my cowl up to cover my mouth and nose. When I was about five feet from him, I broke out in a sprint and flipped over him, pulling out one of my knives and landing behind him before turning around and grabbing him in a way that he couldn’t get away before I could hurt him and putting the blade against his throat. 

“You wanna say that again?” I hissed loud enough that everyone could hear. He was tense and was trying to push his neck away from the blade, but I didn’t let him. I saw Rick and Daryl moving around to try to get me off of him without injuring Shane. “Rick, Daryl, sit down. I wanna hear what Großmaul here has to say,” I growl, ignoring the puzzled looks. 

“Großmaul means loud mouth,” Bambi piped up from across the fire, sipping her water as if nothing was happening. Bambi was my translator and the one who taught me English when my parents adopted me. She had always loved various languages and German was one of the first ones she learned. 

“So, still think I’m defenseless?” I hissed so that only Shane could hear. “Would you like to apologise or should I carve a smile into your neck?” I spat, knowing that the others could hear this, and not caring that they would most likely think I was insane. “Sie haben drei Sekunden, um zu entschuldigen, oder erfahren Sie, wie genau meine scharfen Messer sind.” I growl. The others look to Bambi for a translation.

“He said you have three seconds to apologise, or you'll learn exactly how sharp his knives are.” She replied and the others blanched and hoped with all that they were worth that Shane apologised. 

“Ein,” I hiss and hear Bambi say ‘one’ so that the others know what I mean. “Zwei,” I growl, and when I take a breath to say the last number and seal Shane’s fate, he frantically starts apologising. “I’m sorry, I’m afreid I deedn’t hear zhat?” I say, my accent thick because of my anger. 

“I’m sorry I regarded you as if you were defenseless, and I’m sorry that I insulted you by saying you were incapable of handling a bunch of walkers,” He ground out. I held for a second before pulling away and sheathing the knife. I looked out over the group and felt a pang in my heart as I realized they all thought that I was too dangerous. 

“I’m going to sleep,” I say and walk to the woods, climbing up in a tall tree and seating myself in the ‘nest’ that the branches formed. I pulled my cowl up over my face and snuggled into the tree, falling into a light sleep that I could snap out of at the first sign of danger. I woke slightly when I noticed that someone was behind a tree not far away, watching me. This hurt. I knew that someone was watching me because they didn’t trust me. I let it go and went back to sleep. I woke up often, staying up for a while and falling back asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

When I woke in the morning, it was to Mira at the base of my tree, yelling at me to get up because Dale wanted me. I yawned and stretched, hopping down and scooping her up, putting her on my shoulders and listening as she told me about a dream she had last night that featured a princess made out of fire. 

When we reached the main camp, I walked to Dale and the others moved out of my way when I approached and everyone but my family was giving me scared looks. I looked down and kept my cowl up over my mouth and nose to hide my blush because I was ashamed of my outburst last night. When I reached him, he was talking to Rick, who mentioned that he left a bag of guns in the city and that they needed to go back and get them. I put Mira down and told her to go find Bambi. While I waited for them to finish their conversation, I pulled a pair of stretchy black sleeves from one of my pockets and slid them onto my forearms. They covered from my wrists to my elbows, leaving just part of my upper arm exposed. My cowl was up, I had the same clothes from yesterday on, and I had cloth over my forearms. My hair was a mess, I needed to find a pair of electric clippers and cut it again. I brushed my fingers through it, fixing it as best as I could. A few minutes later, Rick walked away and Dale turned to me. He looked at me concerned, noticing the slight bags under my eyes because I didn’t get much sleep last night. I rub one of my eyes, wondering what it is that he wanted. 

“Are you feeling okay, Alicai?” He asked me softly, I glared at the ground and crossed my arms over my chest. 

“Not like you would care anyways. Everyone’s scared of me now. I told you that I have trouble controlling my temper and I didn’t mean to go that far. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I pulled back!” I said, feeling tears of frustration start to well up in my eyes. ‘For such a feared person, I sure can act like a child sometimes.’ I tensed as I felt arms wrap around me and looked up to see that it was Dale who was hugging me. His hug reminded me of my father and it was like a dam broke. I wrapped my arms around Dale and let him lead me into the RV and I sat down with him. He let me cry on his shoulder until I calmed down. When I was calm enough, I pulled back and wiped my eyes. 

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “Do you know any way that I can get them to trust me again? I don’t want them to be scared of me, I just wanted Shane to stop ridiculing me. Most of my life, I’ve been judged because I’m younger than the people I went to school with and they thought that I was weaker. I was never able to stand it, and I just made myself more of an outcast when I fought back.” I say, looking at the floor.

“Alicai, they’re just afraid of you because they don’t understand you. If you want them to trust you, then spend time with them, and try to keep an open heart. Just be yourself. You seem like a wonderful person, but you won’t let them see that.” He said, and put a hand on my shoulder. “How old are you, Alicai?” He asked me. I looked up at him with pained eyes. 

“I’m 15,” I whisper. I flinch when he lets out a small gasp. I look a little older than fifteen when I have my cowl on, but with it off, I look even younger. I have more muscle than most 15 year olds, but then again, most 15 year olds don’t know how to throw knives and fight. 

“Just show them who you are, easy as that.” He said and told me that I would be helping the ladies with the laundry today. I nodded and walked outside where I saw my sister walking with Andrea, carrying a basket of laundry. I jogged over to her, cowl still on, and smiled at her. 

“I’ve been told to help with the laundry today,” I say and offer to carry the basket for her and she hands it to me. We walk down to the lake where the washing takes place and joke and laugh, beginning to get comfortable with the women. When we get down there, the other women stop what they’re doing and stare at me. I sigh as I know I’ve got some explaining to do. 

“I’m sorry about what happened last night by the fire, sometimes I have difficulty controlling my temper, especially when someone thinks I’m weaker than them. Last night won’t be happening again anytime soon.” I say and look down, expecting to be rejected. 

“Oh, honey, it’s okay.” This comes from a woman named Jacqui. She smiles at me as I look at her with wide eyes, and I look around to see the others nodding in agreement. 

“Really?” I ask disbelievingly. I’m sure this is a trick, there’s no way they would just forgive me like that. 

“Yes! Everyone loses their temper every now and then. It was probably a stressful day for you, and you saved Glenn, Andrea and T-Dog,” she says and pats the ground next to her. I go and sit next to her, putting the basket where she tells me to. She hands me a washboard and I thank her and grab a shirt and hold it out in front of me not really sure what I was supposed to do. I’d only ever done laundry with a washing machine before. I look over to Jacqui when I hear her chuckle, and I blush, though I know she can’t see it beneath my cowl. 

“I don’t know how to do this….” I say and comb a hand through my hair out of habit. She grabs a shirt from the basket and shows me how to wash it with the washboard and I listen and copy her, getting it down after a few tries. We talk and laugh for a while before they get onto the topic of things that they miss. It goes pretty smoothly until Andrea smirks evilly at me.

“I miss my vibrator,” she says, smirking at me, thinking that I’m going to get embarrassed. Boy is she in for a surprise. I laugh and blush.

“Me too,” I say, and they stare at me in shock. “What? Is there something in my hair?” I say and look at my reflection in the water and comb it with my fingers jokingly. 

“You had a vibrator?” Andrea asks me. I nod and smile at her.

“I had a boyfriend too. He was mighty fine when armed with a vibrator,” I say, blushing heavily. They laugh at me and interrogate me about him.

 

“What was he like?” “Was he hot?” They ask.

“He was so sweet to me, but was still good in bed. He was gorgeous, and always knew just what to say when I was down.” I sigh wistfully. He was killed in front of me, taken down by a herd of walkers. He was going to come with me to find my family. They don’t ask what happened to him and I’m grateful for that, but they do continue to tease me about the vibrator remark. We laugh and talk until Ed comes over and gets in our business. I pull down my cowl and keep an eye on him. 

“Sounds like you’re doin’ more talkin’ than workin’” He says and takes a puff of his cigarette. I look over my shoulder at him, noting the way that Carol immediately stops laughing. 

“What’s it to you?” I say, giving him a deathly glare. 

“I just think that little fairies who do women’s work should keep their mouths shut,” He says and I stand up, positioning myself protectively in front of the others. 

“Well that’s funny, because I think that guys who think they’re above women should open their eyes and shut the hell up, stechen.” I snap and hear Bambi translate that for the others. 

“He called him a prick.”

Ed comes towards me and gets up into my face, sneering at me. “You’ll learn your place,” He says and goes past me to grab Carol, gripping her arm so hard that it’s sure to leave a bruise. 

“Hey! Let go of her, you bastard!” shouts Andrea. Ed back hands her and tries to storm away with Carol. I move in front of him and push the tip of one of my knives against his throat. 

“One little jab, and you’re gone. It that what you want, Schwein?” I say threateningly. He shakes his head. When I back off, he lunges at me and I throw him to the ground and snarling at him, baring my teeth, before beginning to punch him. Anyone who would hurt someone they promised to love is disgusting to me. Especially considering my past. Only when I feel hands pulling me off do I realize how bloodied Ed’s face is. I stand up and turn around, taking a deep breath. I walk over to the water and push my cowl back up before sitting by the edge and looking at my reflection in its glassy surface. I sit back, laying down and closing my eyes, slowly calming down. I hear the ladies sit around me, returning to their work and I join a few minutes after. We’re quiet for a little bit before the talk slowly resumes. 

“How old are you, Alicai?” Carol asks me. Maybe she’s noticed that I look a lot younger without my cowl or the way that I react strongly to nearly everything. I look at her and smile a little. 

“Guess,” I say, wondering how old I look. 

“Take off your cowl so that I can guess accurately,” she says in return. I smile and pull the cowl down off my nose and mouth. 

“Hmm. 17?” She asks. I shake my head and smile, turning to Jacqui and gesturing for her to guess. 

“14?” I smile at that and shake my head again. 

“I’m 15,” I say chuckling at their surprised looks. 

“15 and you can fight that well?” Jacqui asks. I nod.

“I’ve been fighting for most of my life. Knives were just a hobby for me. I also do gymnastics, I can cook, clean and know how to take care of a baby.” They give me shocked looks, and I realize I’m probably going to be working with them until I get the camp’s trust back. I go back to washing and we go back to talking about nothing in particular until we finish. Then we go up and I watch the kids with Carol, Lori, and Bambi. They start to play hide and seek and ask me if I want to play. I agree, obviously, and they decide that Carl is going to seek while the rest of us hide. I climb up into a tree and pull my cowl back over my face. I lay down on my stomach on a branch that’s easy to see and looked down at the ground, waiting to be found. I know that the ladies can see me from where they are and they laugh at me. 

The branch I chose was thick and seemed pretty sturdy to me. I was about ten feet off the ground, looking down. I saw Carl get close to my position and I started quietly chuckling. Loud enough that he would hear me if he passed underneath, but he couldn’t hear me unless he was directly under me. I watched him get closer, and suddenly had a feeling that something was going to happen, so I kept a close eye on our surroundings. I looked down at Carl who was looking around him, trying to find the source of the chuckling and I start to laugh louder. He looks and points triumphantly at me. 

“Ha! I found you!” He says and starts walking away to find the others. I freeze when I hear a snap and a few seconds later, I’m falling. I let out a small yelp and Carl jumps back. I land hard and struggle to get air back into my lungs. We hear a loud scream echo out from the camp and I scramble to get up, though I fall back down, searing pain racing through my chest. I cough and start to stumble back to camp where a chorus of screams echo over the mountains. ‘Walkers. must have gotten to the camp.’ I ignore the pain in my chest and get back to the camp as fast as I can, telling the children to stay with Lori and Carol. I pull out a couple of throwing knives and launch them into the skulls of several walkers. I pulled a short dagger out of the waistband of my pants and killed as many walkers as I could until they were all gone. I looked around the camp and noticed Andrea sitting by her sister, covered in blood. I slowly walked over and sat down carefully, careful of my side. ‘Probably a cracked or bruised rib’. I sit there in silence for a little bit before I scoot closer to Andrea and wrap an arm around her shoulders. She leans against me and I let her use me for support. 

About an hour and a half later, I coughed into the crook of my arm and stared in shock at the small spattering of blood there. I was still for a few moments before Andrea noticed and looked to where I was staring and at seeing the blood, snapped out of her state of shock. 

“Alicai, you need to see Dale, you’re hurt,” she says worriedly. She turns away from her sister and lifts the hem of my shirt up, revealing a large bruise on the left side of my ribcage. She gets up and gently pulls me up, taking me over to where Dale is talking to Rick about something. I wince when she bumps my side, directly where the bruise is. 

“I’m fine, there’s stuff that needs to be done, Andrea,” I protest. She ignores me and continues to drag me to Dale. When we reach him, he notices the way that Andrea is supporting me and immediately stops Rick, coming closer to us. The pain is excruciating, but I can deal with it, if they would leave me alone. 

“What happened, Alicai? Andrea?” Dale asks, looking us over for injuries. I cough into my elbow again, and hold out my arm to show him the blood that came up. There’s a little blood on my lips, and I can taste it’s coppery flavor on my tongue. I look down, and bite my lip slightly. 

“I was playing a game with the younger kids and I climbed up into a tree and I was on a branch that turned out to be unstable and it broke. I was about ten feet up and I landed on my back. Then the attack started so I forgot about it and came to help,” I say and he signals for me to take my shirt off. I do so and he tells me to put my arms above my head. I grimace and clench my jaw, hissing at the pain the motion brings forward. He pokes and prods the bruise, feeling around my ribs. After a while of this, he says that I’ve probably cracked a rib and goes to the RV to get some wrappings. I decide to just leave my arms where they are and stand there waiting for him to come back. Andrea has gone back to her sister’s side, and I close my eyes, tilting my head back. I hear footsteps approaching and see Jacqui walking towards me a concerned frown on her face. I cough again, this time keeping my mouth closed and spitting out a large red glob when it stops. Jacqui must have seen it because she picks up her pace. 

“What happened?” she says leaning in to look for a bite or scratch mark. I shake my head slightly at her. 

“I fell out of a tree and cracked a rib,” I say closing my eyes again. Dale comes back out with the wrappings and winds them tightly around my chest so that the rib won’t shift anymore. He thinks the reason that I’m coughing up blood is that the rib scratched my lung. Not enough to rip it and endanger my life, but enough to draw blood. When he’s done I slowly pull my shirt back on, and lower my arms, wincing.


	5. Chapter 5

Dale tells me that I’m in charge of watching the younger kids until I heal up.I just nod, deciding not to argue because there isn’t much else I can do when every movement hurts terribly. I go over to where Bambi and Lori are sitting with the younger ones staying closer than normal. Mira runs over to me and I hold a hand out to stop her before she tackles me. She stops and looks confused. I sit crisscross and pull her onto my knee. 

“Hey, kleiner, I got hurt yesterday when we were playing that hiding game so you have to be really gentle when you come running at me like that, Plazet?” She nods and starts looking for the injury so I distract her by starting to braid her hair. She stops and watches me, entranced by the graceful movements of my hands. Sophia runs over to me when she sees me braiding Mira’s hair and asks me if I can do hers after I finish Mira’s. I nod and smile when she sits down to watch. Carl comes over and he and Sophia talk while I finish up Mira’s hair. I pluck a nearby flower and weave it into the end of the braid to hold it together. Then I tap her on the nose and let her get up before telling Sophia to sit in front of me so I can braid her hair. 

“Why did you get your piercings?” I look up and see Carl looking at the rings in my face and ears. I smile when he blushes. 

“Carl! I’m sorry Alicai, he shouldn’t have just asked like tha-” Lori admonishes Carl and tries to apologize to me for him, but I cut her off. 

“No, no, it's fine, Lori.”I say and smile, turning back to Carl. “It was a tradition between Bambi over there and I. Every time I came to visit, we would go into town and I would get a piercing. She usually didn’t get one with me, but she got her share too. They gave me something to look at and remember home while I was at school,” I say and he looks at me with wide eyes, like he couldn’t believe I’d get that many. While I was explaining, I braided Sophia’s hair into an intricate fishtail braid and plucked a nice purple flower to tie it with. 

“Can I get a piercing?” Carl asked, turning to his mom. I chuckled Lori raised an eyebrow. 

“Well, that depends on what you want to pierce.” She said, quite reasonably, in my opinion. Carl sits thoughtfully for a moment then nods his head and pinches the cartilage on his left ear. 

“can I get a bar through my cartilage like Alicai?” He asks excitedly. Lori smiles and nods. 

“If, you can find someone to do it right.” Lori says, emphasis on the ‘if’. I look at her and raise my hand slightly. 

“I can do it. Bambi, did you grab the bags that were under my bed?” At her nod I look back at Lori, glancing between her and Carl. “I did my own industrial, and I could do his if that’s fine with you and Rick?” I say, shrugging my shoulders and wincing. Lori sighs, and nods, getting up to ask Rick I assume. Carl smiles widely and lets out an excited squeak, blushing after the fact. He jumps up and gently gives me a hug that I return with one arm, as my other arm has been captured by Mira. Carl asks me questions about the piercing like, ‘will it hurt’, ‘how long until it will heal’, things like that. I answer all of his questions until Lori comes back with Rick in tow. I look up when they approach and Rick just stands there, looking at me, probably thinking this through. 

“How’re you gonna do it?” He finally asks. While Lori was talking to Rick, Bambi went and grabbed my bag with my equipment in it. I rummaged through it until I had gotten all that I needed. I laid them out on a soft white towel that was also in the bag and explained. 

“This is the needle that will make the holes. I’ll mark where I’m going to pierce and use this little tube to keep the needle straight, so his ear doesn’t get damaged. Then, I’ll push this,” I hold up a matte black bar,” through the hole, screw the little balls on and boom, it’s done. I have sterilizer and I assume that we’ll be going back to the camp before I do this?” I say, raising one eyebrow. They nod and I can tell that Lori doesn’t really want him to get this, but she’s allowing it, probably because Rick persuaded her. I stand up with the help of Carol, gather my tools, and we walk back to the camp to the RV where Dale, Andrea, and Glenn are standing outside. They smile at us when we pass and Glenn follows us inside. 

“What’s going on?” He asks when he sees the excited but slightly scared look on Carl’s face and the tools that I set out on the table. I look around the RV and sigh. I tell Carl to go lay down on the bed and wait for me. He does, Rick and Lori following behind him. 

“I’m giving Carl a piercing. He wants an industrial like mine,” I say and point to the bar in my cartilage. Glenn winces and I chuckle. “Wanna watch?” I say teasingly. I sanitize every tool that I’m going to use and carry them over to where Carl is laying down. He looks at me and I can tell that he’s starting to get nervous. “D’ya still want it?” I ask gently, not wanting to degrade him. He nods and I give him a calm smile. “Were you listening earlier when I explained how I was going to do it?” I ask he gives me a meek ‘yes’ and small nod. “I need you to face towards the window and I’m gonna tell you to take a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Can you do that for me?” He says yes and I grab the marker, quickly marking where to go through and grabbing the needle. I position the metal tube on the side of his cartilage that it’s going to come out of and line the needle up. “Ready? Take a deep breath in,” I say and push the needle through the first side,” And let it out slowly.” I move the pipe to the other side of his cartilage and push the needle through more so that I can push it through again. “Deep breath in,” I quickly push the needle through,” And let it out slowly.” He nods slightly and I give him a gentle smile. “I need you to so that again so I can put the bar in, okay?” 

“Y-yeah.” 

“1,2,3.” I say and push the bar through both holes in one shot, pushing the needle out in the process. I screw the ball on and sit back. “All done,” I say and wipe the area with an alcohol wipe before letting him sit up. “Go check it out,” I say and give him an encouraging smile. The bar is a little big, but he’ll grow into it. If he decides to let it heal all the way. 

“AW! That’s so cool!” I hear Carl shout from the RV’s bathroom. He runs back out and over to me, giving me a light hug before he runs over to his parents and shows them the black bar. 

“Hey, Carl,” I say and wait until he looks at me. “You have to clean it every day when you wake up and when you go to bed with this,” I hand him a small bottle of an alcohol and water mixture, “ and rotate it right after you clean it. Only after you clean it. Okay?” I ask seriously. If his ear got infected, it could be really bad. 

“Okay, I got it. Thanks, Alicai. “ He says with a wide smile on his face and then runs out to show Sophia, I assume. I turn to Rick and Lori and give them a small smile. 

“The bar is a little big, it’s one of my old ones I kept around just incase. He’ll grow into it though.” I assure them. The bar looks really big on his ear, but when he starts to grow more, it’ll fit just fine. They give me nods and polite smiles before leaving and returning to what they were doing before. I clean up and put my stuff back in my bag before taking it back to Bambi’s tent. I go back to the RV where Bambi is still standing with the other bag that I left under my bed. 

“Thanks,” I say and take the bag from her, going into the RV. I set the bag down onto the table and open it, revealing most of the clothes that I own. It’s a big bag, big enough to hold enough clothes to last me a month. I grab a black and white flannel, a navy blue t shirt, and dark grey skinny jeans. I also grab a beanie and ditch the cowl for the day. I slip into the RV’s bathroom and change quickly. I look into the mirror and grimace at the state of my hair. It may be the end of the world, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the end of my hair too. I comb the top with my fingers as best as I can before putting the beanie on and pushing it back until a little bit of my hair shows. I smile and walk out, putting my old clothes back into the bag. ‘I’ll wash them next time I’m on laundry duty.’ I think and after putting my boots back on, I take my bags to my sister’s tent so that they won’t get lost. Then I go find the ladies and kids. 

“Hey, sorry I took so long. I wanted to change into some clean clothes,” I say and smile when Mira immediately comes running to me. 

“Wow, you look so different when you aren’t in all black. It looks good,” Lori says with a smile and slightly wide eyes. I send a sweet smile her way. 

“Thank you,” I say honestly and look down to where Mira is tugging on the edge of my flannel. “What is it, kleines Wunder?” I say, squatting down to her height, hearing Bambi translate my nickname for Mira. 

“He called her ‘little wonder’. Her full name is Admirari, which means ‘wonder’ in Latin.” I turn and flash a grin at her. 

“Sing the song! Sing the song!” Mira shouts excitedly. 

“The rainbow song, right, Mi?” I ask her, even though I already know the answer. She nods excitedly and I smile. I lean against a tree and pull her onto my lap. I hum the opening and begin to sing softly and slowly. 

“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high.   
There’s a land that I heard of once, in a lullabye.   
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue.   
And the dreams, that you dare to dream, really do come true.” 

I look up at Bambi and see the tears beginning to slip down her cheeks. Our mother used to sing this song to us all the time. By now, Carl and Sophia have come and sit down next to their mothers, listening serenely. 

“Someday I’ll wish upon a star,   
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.   
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,  
Away above the chimney tops.   
That’s where you’ll find me…” 

Mira rests her head on my chest and I feel tears of my own begin to overflow in my eyes. I blink and a few slip out, leaving wet tracks behind them. 

“Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly,  
Birds fly over the rainbow,  
Why then, oh why can’t I?  
If happy little bluebirds fly  
Beyond the rainbow,   
Why, oh why can’t I?” 

My voice cracks on the last line and I look down at Mira, to see her sleeping face resting on my chest, looking as if she hadn’t a care in the world. She shouldn’t have a care in the world. She shouldn’t have to worry about where her next meal is from, or if her family will still be here the next day. I gently brushed a lock of honey blonde hair out of her eyes and planted a kiss on her forehead. I looked up to see tears streaming down everyone but Carl and Sophia’s faces. Carl and Sophia are sitting quietly with serene smiles on their faces. I chuckle and wipe my teary eyes. Lori gets up and comes over to me, gently hugging me. 

“That was beautiful, Alicai,” She says after pulling back and I almost follow her, missing the feeling of a mother’s warm embrace. I sniffle and thank her quietly. I look up to the sky and seeing that the sun was starting to set, I carefully got up. 

“We should head back to camp,” I say. “It’s getting dark.” 

When we get back to camp, Jim is tied up by the RV and everyone else is in a circle a little ways away. I walk over to the circle, ignoring all of the surprised looks at my change of clothes. 

“What’s goin’ on?” I ask cautiously. I look around at the group with a frown on my face. 

“Jim..Jim got bit in the attack,” Jacqui says. My eyes widen in shock and I look down. I never talked to him, but I’ve seen him around a bit and he seemed like a good guy. 

“Oh. What are we gonna do about it?” I ask Rick, who has clearly taken over as leader of the group. One of them, at least. He shook his head at me with a helpless look on his face. I’m quiet for a second before I look up at Rick slowly. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of man who’d want to risk the group, maybe….” I say hesitantly, trailing off into silence. Jacque and Carol stare at me in shock. “What!? He doesn’t seem like the kind of man who would risk the lives of others to save himself. That’s all I’m saying here..” I scowl and stalk away, heading to my tree to catch some sleep. As much as I can after witnessing a massacre like that, anyways. 

I sit there for who knows how long and as the first rays of light brighten the sky over this horrid place, I get up and make a decision. I begin to honor that decision by helping around the camp as much as I can. I cook breakfast, wash clothes, and get rid of bodies. Around noon, Rick calls everyone to the center of camp. 

“We can’t stay here. The walkers are starting to move into the mountains. I think we should go to the CDC on the edge of Atlanta. Shane thinks we should head for the prison that’s about 100 miles in the opposite direction. I think we should give the CDC a chance, and if that doesn’t work out, then we can head for the prison. We saw how easily the military was overrun, we don’t know if the prison is overrun too.” He says, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops and setting his shoulders so that he looks relaxed and tense at the same time. I nod in agreement with Rick. It seems that everyone else does too, because Rick starts issuing orders to pack up the camp and get ready to leave. I go and pack up all of my family’s supplies and help around the camp until everything but the tents are packed. We are going to leave tomorrow first thing in the morning. 

Fast forwarding to when they get on the road to the prison  
( I skipped the CDC because we all know what happens there.) 

Looking out the window at the scenery racing by, I think back on how I got here. 

I sighed and pressed my legs into the sides of the large black thoroughbred I’m riding. I look over at my boyfriend, Beau. He smiles over at me and gets his horse into a trot. I do the same and we make our way across the plain that we need to go through to get to Georgia. We stop by a small farm house and get more feed for the horses. After a few hours of travel, we reach a large city. Cautiously, we make our way in, leaving our horses on the outskirts and out of the way should something happen. We get more supplies as we make our way through the city. When we round the side of a large building, we stumble straight into a herd of walkers. The city was oddly deserted, we hadn’t seen anything, dead or alive until now. We had stupidly left our guard down as we had been in the city for almost three hours and hadn’t run into anything. Beau froze and I grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him away. But it was too late. The walkers noticed us and started coming towards us. We started to run and they picked up speed. I let go of his arm so that I could keep my balance easier. The noise of the walkers and my heart pounding in my ears was so great that I didn’t hear when Beau told me to turn and I kept running towards where the horses were. He turned and I noticed a few minutes later that he wasn’t beside me anymore. I climbed to the top of a nearby building and ran across the tops until I caught sight of Beau again. He was surrounded by walkers and they were closing in on him. I felt horror carve it’s ugly pattern on my face. 

“Beau….” I whispered to myself. He looked around him in desperation and looked directly at me, just as the first walkers reached him. I saw him mouth something. Something I couldn’t hear, and then it was gone in a vicious scream. I stood there, frozen in shock, unable to move or react other than the tears that slipped down my cheeks as I watched the one person with me get torn apart, his screams echoing through the city. I don’t know how long I stood there, but I do know that I didn’t leave until the screams stopped. I walked out of the city and to the horses numbly, Beau’s screams echoing in my mind on a constant loop. I got on my horse and untacked Beau’s. I left his horse there, untacked, untied, free to wander. I couldn’t stand seeing it, the horse would only be a reminder of my mistake. I took off, traveling to Georgia, only stopping to eat and sleep. About ten miles out from Atlanta, my horse’s heart gave out. I burned the body and placed a single blossom over it. I looked at the charred corpse of my only companion for a bit before turning towards Atlanta and walking. I made it to Atlanta by the end of the day. I slept on the outskirts and went in in the morning. That was the day that I found the group. 

I’m broken out of my thoughts by the car slowing down and coming to a stop. I wipe the tear tracks from my face and get out with the others. Dale tells us that the road is blocked and to gather supplies while they try to figure a way out. I nod and silently start getting supplies like non perishables and weapons out when I look over and see a huge herd of walkers coming towards us. Images flash through my mind and Beau’s screams echo once again.

I whistle loud enough for the group to hear and signal for everyone to get under the cars. They instantly obey, having caught sight of the walkers when they looked at me. I unsheathed one of my knives and slid underneath the car nearest to me, looking around to make sure that those near me were also hidden. I can see Sophia and Carl underneath a car not far from me, and Mira and Bambi also out of sight. When the first walkers reach us, my heart starts racing. I tighten my grip on the handle of my knife before silently breathing in and out, relaxing and watching Carl, Sophia, Bambi, and Mira as closely as I can while also keeping an eye out for myself.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated, I hope you enjoyed this. This is one of my first works, so I hope it's not too bad lol


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